Ulster Rugby 2017-2018 Part 2

First topic message reminder :

Carberry is 22, McPhillips is 21. Is this talk about sticking with McPhillips and hoping he turns out to be a gem maybe a tad naive? Carberry at a year older is being talked about as though he was the second coming and all this despite Sexton and Byrne and a whole backline of stellar players potentially blocking him. By contrast, it's almost as if we only know the name of McPhillips because we had no choice. A year ago the thinking was Jackson and Nelson. We then were saying Cooney can play 10 a bit. Then we signed Lealifano. Surely if McPhillips was the hot prospect, the coaches would have featured him more before Lealifano left.
In fact during Leanlifano's time here wasn't Nelson the preferred bench 10, and indeed started 3 games at 10 before Christmas, but then got injured?

Not meaning to be super negative, I hope I'm wrong. Cooney is a perfect example of a player suddenly shining from nowhere. I guess Ulster coaches know better than me if he's a real prospect worth thrusting into the limelight or not.

Tomorrow? Thats not the Ulster way. Advertise after first game of the season thats more lime it.

Will the new CEO be in time for start of season?

Kingshu wrote:
Will the new CEO be in time for start of season?

The closing date for applications is after the season begins, interviews will take time to set up. If they get someone from that round they'll have notice to serve. I think we'd be lucky to get someone working in the job before 2019

marty2086 wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:McFarland has been given the green light to start with Ulster Rugby next week.  Nucifora negotiated a deal with SRU.

Good to see progress has been made.

Did Nucifora not say over the summer it wasn't money holding back McFarland joining?

Well I heard the SRU where trying to charge an extortionate amount for McFarlands release, figuring Ulster were in a desperate state to get him in ahead of the season.

Nucifera stepped in to call their bluff (banking that in World cup season the SRU weren't going to seriously hold him in post until the new year) by making Easterbuy available for as long as necessary and in the end McFarland was released at a fraction of the cost.

I've said all along it was a money issue rodders, what I don't get is Nucifora telling another story to the world. Just stinks of him covering his own backside

marty2086 wrote:I've said all along it was a money issue rodders, what I don't get is Nucifora telling another story to the world. Just stinks of him covering his own backside

Actually he saved Ulsters backside as Cunningham was willing to pay up. It was the SRU who have come out of this looking extremely silly and Nucifera enhancing his reputation.

rodders wrote:

marty2086 wrote:I've said all along it was a money issue rodders, what I don't get is Nucifora telling another story to the world. Just stinks of him covering his own backside

Actually he saved Ulsters backside as Cunningham was willing to pay up. It was the SRU who have come out of this looking extremely silly and Nucifera enhancing his reputation.

Except it was Joe and Nucifora who appointed him was it not? So Bryn wanting Ulster not to be hampered by that decision isn't exactly a bad thing

Does feel shortsighted by the Scots. If you're a coach and Scotland come calling you'd need to weigh up the benefit of coaching in an international setup vs the knowledge that you're probably going to shafted on a 9 month notice period that they have history of trying to enforce.

Fine for coaches with no aspirations of higher office but would weigh heavily if you wanted a head coach role in the future.

marty2086 wrote:

rodders wrote:

marty2086 wrote:I've said all along it was a money issue rodders, what I don't get is Nucifora telling another story to the world. Just stinks of him covering his own backside

Actually he saved Ulsters backside as Cunningham was willing to pay up. It was the SRU who have come out of this looking extremely silly and Nucifera enhancing his reputation.

Except it was Joe and Nucifora who appointed him was it not? So Bryn wanting Ulster not to be hampered by that decision isn't exactly a bad thing

Nope it was Cunningham and the Ulster board. IRFU agreed the appointment.

Seems a few within the club are under a different impression

Yeah, I had heard this was D4 taking Ulster in hand. But everyone would have been aware of him - hard to imagine everyone wasn't keen, whoever suggested it initially.

I suppose it we'll only be able to tell in hindsight. If he's a disaster, we can assume it was Ulster's idea, and long-suffering D4 simply couldn't stop them. If it works out well, it's safe to assume it was D4's idea, swooping down over the bumbling Bryn's head to save Ulster's bacon.

Anyone know if Ulster or Wasps will be streaming the game on Friday night?

marty2086 wrote:Anyone know if Ulster or Wasps will be streaming the game on Friday night?

Commentary from the Gloucester game said they didn't think it would be.

Three year extension for Big Stew. Weird timing.

Redman wrote:

marty2086 wrote:Anyone know if Ulster or Wasps will be streaming the game on Friday night?

Commentary from the Gloucester game said they didn't think it would be.  

Think I remember that now you mention it, did they not say though that they wouldn't be? Maybe Wasps will?

Would be good to see the new Celtic Cup games made available through something like Facebook going forward

Don Alfonso wrote:Three year extension for Big Stew. Weird timing.

Seems to be you have to get business done early these days, the French especially like to get things tied up before xmas so I suppose clubs need to get contracts done even earlier

Marcells back

Good to see guys like Moore and Kernohan get another run out

Ulster Rugby team to play Wasps, pre-season friendly at Ricoh Arena, Friday 24th August (7.30pm):

(15-9): Will Addison, Craig Gilroy, Stewart Moore, Stuart McCloskey, Angus Kernohan, Johnny McPhillips, Jonny Stewart;
(1-8): Eric O'Sullivan, John Andrew, Marty Moore, Alan O'Connor (C), Kieran Treadwell, Marcell Coetzee, Sean Reidy, Nick Timoney.

Replacements: Adam McBurney, Andrew Warwick, Tom O'Toole, Alex Thompson, Caleb Montgomery, David Shanahan, Angus Curtis, Darren Cave, Greg Jones, Chris Henry, Jack Owens.

The O'Sullivan fella. What do we know?

Also that back row looks promising.

And looks like Curtis is the cover 10 which is surprising as all the pre season was he's now a 12

Great to see Coetzee start.

The thought of Timoney running lines off Coetzee's busts has me salivating.

The Striped fellows

15 Rob Miller
14 Christian Wade
13 Elliot Daly
12 Juan De Jongh
11 Josh Bassett
10 Billy Searle
9 Dan Robson
1 Ben Harris
2 Tom Cruse
3 Kieran Brookes
4 Joe Launchbury
5 Will Rowlands
6 Nizaam Carr
7 Joe Atkinson
8 Nathan Hughes

16 Tommy Taylor
17 Zurabi Zhvania
18 Will Stuart
19 James Gaskell
20 Thomas Young
21 Craig Hampson
22 Michael Le Bourgeois
23 Gaby Lovobalavu
24 Marcus Watson
25 Charlie Matthews
26 Ashley Johnson

carpet baboon wrote:The O'Sullivan fella. What do we know?

He has two pigmy goats

Is Deysel injuried?

marty2086 wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:The O'Sullivan fella. What do we know?

He has two pigmy goats

Me and my eldest want a goat. The wife seems to think it's a ridiculous pet.

Goats a good pet, they will eat nearly anything and if you dont like it, you can eat it.

carpet baboon wrote:

marty2086 wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:The O'Sullivan fella. What do we know?

He has two pigmy goats

Me and my eldest want a goat. The wife seems to think it's a ridiculous pet.

Show her this, if she still says it then she's a ridiculous wife

Thon things would give very little milk and just as little meat, bloody useless. You'd get a lovely miniature lambeg drum out of them though, souvenir keyring size.

rodders wrote:

marty2086 wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:McFarland has been given the green light to start with Ulster Rugby next week.  Nucifora negotiated a deal with SRU.

Good to see progress has been made.

Did Nucifora not say over the summer it wasn't money holding back McFarland joining?

Well I heard the SRU where trying to charge an extortionate amount for McFarlands release, figuring Ulster were in a desperate state to get him in ahead of the season.

Nucifera stepped in to call their bluff (banking that in World cup season the SRU weren't going to seriously hold him in post until the new year) by making Easterbuy available for as long as necessary and in the end McFarland was released at a fraction of the cost.  

Is that the case, calling the bluff? SRU agreed to release him just about a month after securing and announcing his replacement. It could be suggested that if they didn't get Wilson in that McFarland would still have been kept with the SRU set up.

Don Alfonso wrote:Three year extension for Big Stew. Weird timing.

A shrewd move by Stu or his agent. I like it from the players perspective. He couldn't negotiate last season as there was a centre going through legal issues and it wasn't known if he would return to Ulster. Would have been a PR nightmare if the media caught wind of Stu having his hand out for more money during all that fiasco.

Now that player is no longer on the squad and Marshall is a continued injury concern it's put McC in the perfect position to negotiate strong.

Strong team tonight for Wasps

Wasps team to face Ulster at the Ricoh Arena on Friday August 24 (7:30pm kick off)

15 Rob Miller
14 Christian Wade
13 Elliot Daly
12 Juan De Jongh
11 Josh Bassett
10 Billy Searle
9 Dan Robson
1 Ben Harris
2 Tom Cruse
3 Kieran Brookes
4 Joe Launchbury
5 Will Rowlands
6 Nizaam Carr
7 Joe Atkinson
8 Nathan Hughes

16 Tommy Taylor
17 Zurabi Zhvania
18 Will Stuart
19 James Gaskell
20 Thomas Young
21 Craig Hampson
22 Michael Le Bourgeois
23 Gaby Lovobalavu
24 Marcus Watson
25 Charlie Matthews
26 Ashley Johnson

Oi, I already posted that. Plagiarist!!

Sorry Pete, just tend to ignore most of your posts

marty2086 wrote:Sorry Pete, just tend to ignore most of your posts

So do I

So. Get handed out behinds a bit, but to be expected given the teams. Roll on the Scarlets.

Apparently Coetzee got sent off for scrapping, and Greg Jones came back on instead of him. Dan setting his stall out in terms of discipline, maybe.

There's video of the game out there somewhere apparently, from the reports Ive read Ulster squandered chances. Launchberry was binned not long after Coetzee, seems it was a game with a bit of an edge

Obviously it would be dictated by coaching strategy, but judging from the clips here of the Wasps game Addison is a counter attacking fullback which is something I always like to see. Well... as long as the work effort is there from team mates to support.

https://youtu.be/VFfRmt9JnZE

If as it seems the game was taped why didn't wasps stream it live? Seems a wasted opportunity

Clips are from an Ulster interview. Might be Ulster support staff recorded it, they usually have to review the videos Monday/Tuesday for things to work on. May not have had had a commentary team as part of it and/or have restricts from broadcasting due to Wasps permission.

All I want to know is did Coetzee make it through the game uninjured? I'm assuming we would have heard if he had a blow out.

He was sin binned early on for fistycuffs and I'm sure someone said Dan didn't bring him back on showing how discipline will be enforced.

Abbey Insurance Ulster Academy players Angus Curtis and Tom O'Toole have been rewarded with upgraded development contracts for the 2018/19 season, after which they will move on to senior contracts that will keep the pair at Kingspan Stadium until 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Good news, looks like Bryns working to get his work done early this season

Was at the Meet The Coaches event last night. Wouldn't be the best person to give the review of the event. Was anyone else there who could adequately report back to the rest?

What I will say though is we have a head coach with a personality, and it's been a while since we've had that.

Fairly comprehensive write-up on T'Other Forum. We've been here before, but it does sound encouraging.

Also,good article in the42.ie with the man himself.

Cooney and Henderson available this weekend

With Murray out for a few months the November tests could see cooney get some decent time for Ireland. Would love to see the pair of them fighting for the 9 shirt

carpet baboon wrote:With Murray out for a few months the November tests could see cooney get some decent time for Ireland. Would love to see the pair of them fighting for the 9 shirt

Also maybe hurts Carberry at Munster as one of the big sells as helping build a relationship with Murray, might be a big incentive for Cooney and Burns to click

Ulster team to play Scarlets, Guinness PRO14, Saturday 1st September, Kingspan Stadium (5.15pm):

(15-9): W Addison; C Gilroy, D Cave, S McCloskey, H Speight; B Burns, J Cooney;
(1-8): A Warwick, J Andrew, T O'Toole, A O'Connor (captain), I Henderson, M Coetzee, S Reidy, N Timoney;

Replacements (16-23): A McBurney, E O'Sullivan, R Kane, K Treadwell, C Henry, D Shanahan, A Curtis, A Kernohan.

Loving the new look backline. Any word on why no Jordi Murphy or Marty Moore? Murphy was involved internationally recently I suppose.

No Marty Moore? Good team with some interesting selections, hopefully McBurney gets some decent game time been hoping for him to get a decent run for a while now and With Rory going to be missing for most of the season he needs it

Where's Deysel this weather too? He's never mentioned these days almost like he's not part of the setup

Did Deysel not get injured just before the end of last season. Broken arm was it? I seem to remember him going off round half time in our last game, must have been Ospreys.

No McPhilips. No Herring.

Real faith in O'Toole. Lot of back and forth talk on Planet Rugby that he's going to be our first choice by the end of the season.

Also real faith in Curtis as the replacement 10, McBurney and O'Sullivan (who seems to have come from nowhere).

Redman wrote:

Real faith in O'Toole.  Lot of back and forth talk on Planet Rugby that he's going to be our first choice by the end of the season.    

If he can improve his scrummaging he can be a top player but it'll also come down to Marty Moore and his fitness